German hunters in with a shout at national stag calling championship
The unique tradition goes back hundreds of years.
German hunters have sought to convince the jury at a national stag calling championship that they can imitate a bellowing red deer.
The unique tradition goes back hundreds of years and was initially aimed at feigning a stag’s rival during the rutting season, in order to better entice deer to come out into the open.
The trick gave hunters a chance to better assess the stag before deciding whether to shoot it.
The competition took place on Friday at the Jagd & Hund, or hunting and dog, trade fair in the western city of Dortmund. There were no animals involved – only bellowing men wearing traditional hunters’ garb including green hats with a tuft of chamois hair.
The hunters used specially-made ox horns, triton snail shells, glass cylinders, the hollow stems of the giant hogweed, and a number of artificially produced instruments to amplify the sound and resonance.
Organisers say a stag’s vocalisations are not only very diverse, but also vary according to age, state of mind and duration of the rut, during which they become increasingly hoarse, as well as the mood of the herd.
In Dortmund, the hunters were asked to compete in three disciplines: the call of the old, searching stag; the call of the dominant male in a pack of does; and the calling duel between two equally strong stags at the height of the rut.
The members of the jury listened with closed eyes to make sure nothing would distract them from the sound.
“The stag calling, for me, it’s the fascinating thing to play with the stags,” said Fabian Wenzel, who was named the eventual champion.
“And maybe shoot an old stag after calling him — that’s the biggest thing for every hunter.”
Mr Wenzel, a hunter from the small village of Nudlingen in Bavaria, won the title for the fifth time in a row and will go forward to the European Stag Calling Championships, which will take place in Lithuania in October.
